Those College Students Might Surprise You: Sarah Hepola's Report From The Classroom

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2023

⏱️ 128 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fan favorite Sarah Hepola is back! Sarah has visited The Unspeakable to talk about everything from alcoholism to #MeToo to the changes in the media landscape and literary world. Today she returns to discuss a recent solo episode she recorded for Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em, the podcast she co-hosts with journalist Nancy Rommelmann. In that episode, Sarah reflected on a semester spent teaching literature and writing to college undergraduates in Dallas, Texas, where she lives. Contrary to public assumptions, the students turned out to be relatively open to new ideas and not hell-bent on canceling their teacher. In this conversation, Sarah talks about what literature the students responded most positively to, what assignments they didn't like (spoiler: Joan Didion) and what they taught her about the ever-changing English language. Sarah and Meghan also talk about writing memoir, the contradictory social codes of dating, and why little girls touch each other's hair so much—and why Meghan hated it!

Sarah stayed overtime for bonus content that was so good that Meghan decided to release it along with the main episode. In that portion, they talk about motherhood, non-motherhood, aging, dating, sex and pornography and why older women are so popular with young men on dating apps.

Guest Bio:

Sarah Hepola is the co-host, with Nancy Rommelmann, of the podcast Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em. She is the author of the bestselling memoir Blackout and her essays have appeared in the New York Times magazine, the Atlantic, Elle, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, Salon, and Texas Monthly. Find her at https://sarahhepola.com.

Relevant links:

https://smokeempodcast.substack.com/p/smoking-diary-16-college-kids-today#details

https://smokeempodcast.substack.com/p/on-not-being-a-mother

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Down. I will tell you about our
0:08.9	returning guest, Sarah Hepula, momentarily. This is an extra special, kind of extra long episode
0:15.7	for reasons I'll explain. But first, a couple of announcements, they have to do with the unspeakeasy,
0:23.6	mostly anyway. So I should tell you that the retreat in Austin, Texas will be our next
0:31.0	retreat. It's June 24th and 25th. It's over the weekend. This is a daytime-only weekend retreat.
0:38.8	So as you may know, many of the retreats are like three nights overnight.
0:43.3	Then we go someplace sort of remote.
0:45.8	This one is right in Austin, near downtown, very conveniently located.
0:51.6	And it will be during the day, probably like, I don't know, 9 a.m. or 10 a.m.
0:56.8	to 5 p.m. It includes a barbecue cocktail reception on Saturday evening. That's all included.
1:04.7	So you're going to get lunch both of those days plus the party on Saturday evening.
1:09.6	As always, space is limited and it is filling up.
1:12.9	But if you are, you know, a gal and you want to come to an unspeak easy retreat,
1:20.1	go to the unspeak easy.com and check out the Austin retreat.
1:23.8	The one that we had in Minneapolis a few weeks ago was fantastic.
1:28.9	That one was a little bit different.
1:34.4	It was a hybrid overnight and daytime retreat. And that worked out really well. We had incredible guest speakers, incredible participants. It was intense. Minneapolis is a very interesting city
1:41.9	when it comes to a lot of the issues we talk about around here.
1:45.5	So, you know, get in on this if you're not already.
1:48.9	It's pretty spectacular.
1:50.5	And the online community is thriving.
1:54.1	That is available for membership at $150 a year.
	...

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